Fundamentals of the Jewish Faith

Chapter Two: The Spiritual World (Part 3)

Now, while the wide variety of life-forms that encompass the spiritual
realm each have their own boundaries and properties, the one thing they
all have in common is the fact that their makeup is utterly beyond our
grasp.

We know they exist; we're aware of some things about them and about what
some of them can do and have done; but we really can't grasp their beings.
So we're forced to depend upon the tradition, which is to say, upon
prophetic revelation, for substantive information about them. (For unlike
things of the natural world, spiritual phenomena haven't elements that can
be charted, scrutinized, prompted, or altered, so neither science nor
speculation can be applied to them.)

And so while a lot has been written in popular literature about angels,
spirits, and all sorts of small and large spiritual entities, the great
preponderance of what's claimed about them is rooted in raw conjecture
alone. Indeed, whatever we think we know about them on our own is as
accurate at best as what we'd imagine we know about the thoughts of
someone in the south of France right now or in Congo.

In any event, we're taught that there are three broad categories of
spiritual entities: Transcendent Forces, angels, and souls.